Conquest of Tunis (1535)

The Conquest of Tunis (1535) was a battle of the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars that was fought between a Habsburg/Christian alliance (backed by the Hafsid dynasty) and the Ottoman Empire (backed by two French galleys). The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, assembled an invasion force of 60,000 troops and 398 ships from the Habsburg domains, Genoa, Portugal, the Papal States, and the Knights of St. John, and he had this force invade Tunis in North Africa, from which the Ottomans and their corsairs launched several raids against the Christian states of the Mediterranean. The Habsburgs destroyed the Ottoman fleet in the harbor before besieging the fortress of La Goletta, suffering heavy losses in the process (many of them from dysentery). After the Habsburg forces conquered the city of Tunis, they massacred 30,000 Muslim civilians, and the stench was so bad that Charles V moved his camp from Tunis to Rades to avoid it. Tunis would remain in Habsburg hands until 1574, when the Ottomans reconquered the city.